Praise the Lord! As the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has blessed us with another week of life on earth, let us do everything humanly possible to live a life that is worthy of His calling in our life. The Lord God Almighty created the universe and everything in it with a perfect master plan, including human beings. The first human beings, Adam and Eve, were perfect in every way when they were created but, in the course of time, they failed in following the commands of God. The Lord God had told them: You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die (Genesis 2:16-17). But, they ate from the tree the Lord God prohibited them from eating and fell under the wrath of God (Genesis 3:4-6, 11-12). They failed to keep God’s moral and ethical directives to them, instead they listened and followed the corruptive and destructive demands of the serpent – the disguised Devil/Satan (Genesis 3:1-4; Revelation 12:9; 20:2). Negligence in obeying God’s commands disrupted their relationship with their creator God as well as with one another and with the rest of God’s creation (Genesis 3:13-19). Man’s disobedience against God’s commands (Genesis 2:17; 3:11-12) paved the way for sin to enter the human world, as prophet Isaiah noted: Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:2). Apostle Paul also stated that Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior (Colossians 1:21). According to Apostle Paul, the reason for people to commit sin is because their minds are controlled by their fleshly desires, as it is mentioned: The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so (Romans 8:7). As of now, All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and the wages of sin death (Romans 6:23). The widely known Greek word for sin is ἁμαρτία (hamartia), which literally means, ‘missing the mark’ or ‘to miss the mark.’ As we have mentioned earlier, the sin that entered the world through Adam (and Eve) disrupted the relationship of one person with another person. As a result, their first born son Cain killed their second born son Abel [Cain’s younger brother] for the reason that Abel presented a better offering to the Lord God Almighty than his brother Cain (Genesis 4:1-12; also refer to Romans 5:12). Ever since, the depraved  people’s hostility with God and with one another continues, despite the privilege of receiving forgiveness for our sins, which was prepared through Christ who bore our sins and nailed them on the cross. In order to get out of our sinful nature, we need to repent and return to God for His mercy and forgiveness, as Apostle Peter urged his hearers: Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19-20a).

It is very important to understand that in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, there was a perfect harmony between God and His creation as well as between human beings and rest of God’s creation up until the time the serpent deceived Eve with false hopes. If they kept the Commands of God and heeded the Word of God, perhaps, Eve herself could have avoided following the corruptive and destructive demands of the devil, or Adam could have stopped Eve from falling in the snare of the devil’s destructive tactics. Since then, the perfect harmony that had been existed between God and His creations, especially with humankind, was disrupted and man’s inclination to follow the corruptive and destructive falsehoods of the devil continued. This attitude of mankind kept us from reaching out to the Lord God Almighty and sin and death began to reign over us (Romans 6:23a) until Christ came down from heaven to earth (Luke 19:10; also refer to Ezekiel 34:16a) to make atonement for the transgressions of sinful humanity and in order to reconcile us with our creator God, as Apostle Paul stated: God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:19; also refer to Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:20). Apostle Peter stated: He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24). Thus, Christ made the ultimate atonement for the sins of all humanity, as Apostle John stated: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2 [also refer to: Romans 5:6-9; Hebrews 9:2-14]). Ever since God made the atonement for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the shedding of blood for the atonement for sin is required up until Jesus’ time when He offered Himself as a sacrifice in the place of the sacrificial lamb (Isaiah 53:4-7; Matthew 26:26-28; Luke 22:7;  John 1:29, 36; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:9, 12; 13:8)

Through the Scripture passage we chose for our meditation this week (which is taken from 2 Thessalonians 3:3-5), Apostle Paul encourages the believers that the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3). It is a trustworthy saying that the Lord will not abandon the church that He bought with His own blood (Acts 20:28b [also refer to 1 Peter 1:18-21]). According to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we can understand that the church in Thessalonica was founded by Paul under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and with the help of his ministry companions during the short stay in the city on his second missionary journey, as it is mentioned:

They [that is, Paul and his ministry companions] came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women (Acts 17:1-4).

Although many Jews and a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women welcomed the preaching of Paul and were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, many Jews became jealous of Paul and, with the help of some bad characters from the marketplace, started a riot in the city in order to attack Paul and Silas, which caused them to leave the city unnoticed. Though Apostle Paul left the city due to the uprising and riot, he kept on contacting the young church through his letters and other means in order to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ. The primary reason for Paul to write to the believers in Thessalonica a second time was to encourage them to stand firm in the faith that was delivered to them, and to ask them to support and encourage one another in times of trials, troubles, tribulations, and persecutions. Paul assured them from his own personal experience that the Lord will remain faithful and will set anyone free from their trials, troubles, tribulations, and persecutions, if they call upon His name, as he mentioned: The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3). Elsewhere Paul stated: No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13). As a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, you and me ought to know that the Lord will not abandon us if we call up on Him, as one of the Psalmist assured: You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you (Psalm 86:5).

Let us read again the Scripture passage we have chosen for our meditation this week (2 Thessalonians 3:3-5).  From this passage we can understand God’s trustworthiness and His promise to care for the believers from the dangers of being faithful to God and from the influence of the evil one. Let us analyze and study it and continue meditating up on it, so that the Lord will continue to speak to us and will help us to strengthen our faith in the Lord and grow into spiritual maturity:

• • The Lord is faithful (3:3a)
  • The Lord will strengthen His people (3:3b)
  • The Lord will protect His people from the evil one (3:3c)
  • The saints of the Lord have placed their confidence in the Lord (3:4a)
  • Everyone who call upon the Lord ought to place their confidence in the Lord (3:4b)
  • The saints ought to do the things the Scripture commands them to do (3:4c)
  • The Lord will direct the saints hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance 3:5)

Dear friends in the Lord, in a nutshell, we can understand that even if we remain faithless and unfaithful to the Lord God who created us and sustained us so far, He will remain faithful and He will not abandon us because the divine nature of the Lord God who created us is to remain faithful, as Apostle Paul stated: If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself (2 Timothy 2:13). Leviticus 23:19 states that God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? Remember, everyone else, including our family and friends, might fall away from caring for us, but God’s promise is that He will never fall away from loving and caring for us. It is the assurance we have in Him that His love and mercies will never cease, as prophet Jeremiah wrote: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23). Therefore, let us hold fast unto Him who created us, sustained us,  and continues to love and care for us. Joshua who was instrumental to dividing and giving the promised land to the Israelites reminded the Israelites that the Lord remained faithful in carrying out what He promised to their ancestors: he said, Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled (Joshua 21:45). From this we can understand that the Lord God Almighty is faithful to fulfill all that He promises to us. May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!